Treatment of produced water from Niger Delta oil fields using simultaneous mixture of local materials

Abstract

Produced water (PW) from petroleum reservoirs often contains heavy metals and other contaminants that are harmful to the environment. Most of the commonly used treatment techniques have been reported to be ineffective in reducing some of the contaminants’ concentrations to recommended disposal levels. This study evaluated the effectiveness of four selected bio-adsorbents combined for treating PW from Niger Delta oil fields. In this study, orange peels (I), banana peels (II), sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) (III) and palm kernel fibers (IV) were washed with distilled water, sun-dried (24 h) and dried in the oven at 105 ± 5 °C (3 h, I and II), 150 °C (30 min, III) and 80 °C (3 h, IV). They were ground into powder, sieved (150 μ, Group A) and (300 μ, Group B), washed with 0.4 mol/L HNO3, filtered and rinsed with distilled water. Samples of PW were obtained from fields R, X, and Y in the Niger Delta and analysed for heavy metals using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Samples were treated in adsorption column over 6 h using the adsorbents simultaneously. Treated samples were analysed with AAS and characterised. Adsorption of heavy metals were assessed using Langmuir and Freundlich models. Data were analysed using regression and other statistical methods. For the 150 μ size of sample R, the percentage reductions for the metal concentrations (Pb, Ni, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mg, Cr, Zn, Mn, Ca, Ar, B, Sn and Ba) were found to be 100%, 52.7%, 100%, 100%, 85.87%, 19.48%, 100%, 92.8%, 17.74%, 98.86%, 22.32%, 29.56%, 78.06% and 44.74%, respectively, while the reduction in 300 μ size were 1.52%, 97.2%, 71.4%, 17.1%, 43.8%, 45.6%, 7.04%, 89.6%, 35.4%, 99.6%, 0.0001%, 1.19%, 14.19% and 0.002%, respectively. The finer adsorbents were more effective. Similar results were obtained for PW samples from the other fields. Produced water from Niger Delta oil fields was effectively treated of contaminants using four selected bio-adsorbents mixed simultaneously.